


Nighttime Exhibition

by mercutiglo



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Gen, Mild Blood, Nightmares, Phone Calls, Rita gets bad night mares, Slight horror, it's a nightmare ya'll, mild violence, there's death in the night mare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 01:44:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14727605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercutiglo/pseuds/mercutiglo
Summary: Rita's nightmares really suck, and there's only one way to make sure they didn't come true.





	Nighttime Exhibition

 

She woke in the darkness in a cold sweat, her breaths coming fast and heavy while the tears started to stream down her face. She hadn't had a nightmare like this one in a long time, and the fact that they had decided to return wasn't boding well for her. They always seemed to crop up when Juno was about to get himself into some horrible situation, doing nothing but confirm all of her terrible fears, nearly dying every time but always managing to narrowly survive. But this one.... It had felt too real. Not that it was really possible, but it felt absolutely horrifying. 

  
She picked up her phone, and pressed 1 on her speed dial. She had slowed her breathing a bit, and the tears were no longer streaming, but they still flowed and her breathing was still not quite at normal. "C'mon, Boss," she whispered to herself, pulling her blanket closer around her shoulders as the phone continued to ring. It went to voicemail, and instead of waiting and leaving a message she simply hung up and dialed right back. It was late at night, she knew, and her boss would probably be not too happy with it in the morning, but for now, she needed to know that everything was okay, that he was alive, that he was safe.

  
This time when the ringing stopped, there was a crabby Juno Steel at the other end of the line. "Rita, it had better be good considering you are interrupting my 3am insomnia snack. What's wrong?" She was so relieved to hear his snarky voice that the tears came back to her eyes, but then her throat began to clog up as well. "Rita, are you crying? Are you okay? What's wrong? Rita, talk to me, I know you're good at it."

  
She was practically gasping for air at that point, she was crying so hard but it wasn't necessarily full on, loud sobs, just the sort of crying that comes from being so terrified and so relieved all at the same time. "Mista Steel," she got out between gasps. "Is that Dark Matters Agent Glass fellow with you right now?"

  
She could tell hear him moving around his apartment, likely trying to find a comfortable spot for whatever news Rita had for him. "Rita what is this about?"

  
"Please, Mista Steel. Is he there with you or no?"

  
"I.... Rita, yes, but he's asleep in the bedroom, and I'm over in the kitchen right now. Rita you're scaring me what is going on?" 

  
She took in a deep breath to try and help calm her down, wiped her tears from her eyes, and started. "So you know how it's been a while since this happened but how I used to get nightmares all the time and I would tell you about them but it was obvious you were ignoring me but I had all kinds of horrid nightmares about you dying?"

  
"Rita, I didn't ignore those. I would never actually be that rude. I know I'm rude, but no, dreams about me dying from one of the very few people in this universe I would call a friend? Of course I remember them, they happened right before almost every case I would go on. Wait, did they come back? Did you just have one?"

  
Rita nodded, but then remembered that Juno couldn't actually see her face. "Yeah, boss. I had one again. And this time it was that Agent Glass fellow who ended up killing you. And that's why I had to hear your voice and Boss I don't know if you're safe right now and...." She started to choke back up again, but Juno tried to comfort her over the phone. 

  
"Rita, Rita calm down, I'm here, I'm alive, I'm okay. Tell me what happened, if you can. Or just tell me what I can do to help you out." Juno tried to keep his voice quiet, considering it seemed like Nureyev would end up being a big part of the story that might end up setting Rita off crying once again, and while it's comforting that she feels he's actually approachable, it _is_ always nice to know the ways in which you could potentially die.

  
"Okay, so it was you and Agent Glass and -"

  
"Okay, Rita, call him Nu-Rex. You don't have to keep calling him Agent Glass, he isn't with Dark Matters anymore. Just call him Rex." The lie would have been transparent to someone less tired and less emotionally unstable, but Rita didn't even catch the beginning of Juno's slip up.

  
"Whatever you say, Boss. So Rex. You and him were out on a case together, I don't remember what exactly because it wasn't important, but you were in some sort of building. Maybe a museum of some kind? I dunno. But you're in this building, and you're running together. And then out of nowhere there's these boxes made out of glass, sorta like display cases that you'd see in a museum, except you and Agen- Rex were in them. And so there were people chasing you but they just vanished or something boss, you know how it is in nightmares. And then all of a sudden he wasn't in a box no more, but he was standing in front of yours, and then it started filling with water. And it was like his hand was on a button or something, and he left only a tiny bit of air at the top, so you weren't dead but it wasn't gonna last you very long. And then he made the glass vanish, and then all of a sudden he had a knife. And so you were soaked and in a pile of water in the middle of this empty museum hallway and he was standing over you and then all the people were back and ya know boss they might've been from TV but I can't remember and so but what he did was just -" She burst back into tears.

  
Juno was having a hard time processing everything she was saying to him. "It's okay Rita, it's okay, you don't have to finish. I think I can put together where that one ends up."

  
"Mista Steel there was so much blood!" she shrieked. She was practically yelling into her phone at this point, as if his entire building couldn't hear her end of the phone call. "And the light was all red too, and he's got those pointy teeth already but they just got even more freaky than they already are, Boss! And the blood was just filling the hallway and it was a really big hallway boss except then the hallway wasn't empty anymore it was filled with cases that had skeletons in them and they had names etched into them and I looked around and then there was an empty one that was open in the middle of the hallway that had your name on it even though you were on the ground in front of me and then I felt something from behind and I turned around and saw one with _my_ name on it boss. So I turned back to where you were on the ground and all of a sudden Agent Glass was gettin real close to me with that knife of his and it still had your blood all over it and he said some creepy stuff and then right before he got to me I woke up and called you boss but. It was so bad boss. I've seen you die a lot of different ways in night mares but never one quite so bad as this.

"Rita, I want you to listen to me. Are you listening to me?"

  
She nodded, and said "Yeah, boss."

  
"Rita, I can promise you that Agent Glass won't be doing anything of the sort. I won't be going into any museums with him, empty and creepy or otherwise. I don't even like museums all that much. But also, I promise you, cross my heart and hope I die, that I will _never_ put myself in any of the situations you've had in your dreams, as much as I can help it. You know I'm not very superstitious, but I would never try to make you worry more than you need to. You mean more to me than you think you do. Everything is going to be okay, Rita. They're only dreams. Okay?"

  
She had calmed down considerably, although the edges of her blankets were now quite soaked with tears. "Okay, Mista Steel. I'm sorry for botherin ya this late at night again." 

  
Juno sighed. "Rita, you know I'd rather you just call me than work yourself up too much. If you need to come in late in the morning, just let me know. But we should both get back to sleep."

  
"Alrighty. Night, Mista Steel."

  
"Night, Rita."  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! As far as we know, Rita hasn't spoken about Peter since MM so we don't know if she would know anything else about him, but I just sorta took it as she knows about him, but still doesn't know who he really is. 
> 
> This fic was not beta'd and I wrote it all tonight, so leave a comment if you see something messed up!
> 
> I've written other podcast fanfics! I wrote one other penumbra one! I'm in the process of writing more! Kudos and comment if you enjoyed it I thrive off of validation  
> (also this was based off a HC post I made on tumblr here: https://mercutiglo.tumblr.com/post/173724335847/filled-in-diamond-aquarius-sign-and-moon-fr-juno )


End file.
